There are pages of cryptocurrencies available online today. You can compare and watch values rise and fall on sites like coinmarketcap.com. The markets are fickle and things change just as quickly in coins as they do in the stock market.

Stresscoin (STS) is holding at a meager $34k market cap and a 565,134,332 circulating supply as of April 10th, 2017. This currency made the most noise in the cryptocurrency world in the early part of 2016. Now, it has gone all but silent. The @stresscoin Twitter account has been suspended. There’s not a whole lot happening on the #stresscoin hashtag either. Is Stress dead?

About Stresscoin

Stresscoin was created as a first generation experiment hybrid pos/pow type-currency that had plans to turn into a full pos (proof-of-stake) currency. The site BitcoinTalk.com has a landing page that promotes the currency with a bit of self-congratulatory language.

Basic Info

There are differences between proof-of-stake and proof-of-work type cryptocurrencies. In proof of work currencies you earn coins by mining, or doing “work.” Work is a difficult task that the computer carries out. In proof of stake, you earn coins based on the number of coins you own. The number of coins is your stake. There’s a psychological security in pos currencies because those who own them want to ensure their value remains high. Since, there is no value in mining a proof of stake type currency, pos are often hybrids that allow for some reward beyond simple ownership.

Mining

Mining is best left to those who know what they are doing. The everyday computer user doesn’t have the setup required to mine cryptocurrencies in a way that’s profitable. Maybe that’s ok with you. An analogy is that you can pan for gold in the streambeds of Colorado. However, add the time it takes for you to find gold plus the cost of the equipment you’ll need to pan for gold and you negate any profits that you might uncover in the gravel. This is the same situation for the average Joe mining cryptocurrencies. Mining crypocurrencies and panning for gold are fun entertainment strategies that partly pay for themselves. They are not big money makers for the average miner.

One popular mining software, Epic Scale makes mining out to sound like a philanthropic activity, because it is. You mine coins powered by your own electricity, and other people make the money. Yet, coins must be mined at some point.

So, what happened to Stresscoin? A post on Bitcoin forum dated September 17, 2016 says that “The Chinese team finally took over.” The stresscoin.net website is now written in Chinese and looks like a project that has finally succumbed to neglect.